I've been lucky. I've a pair of TARA Labs Reference interconnects that I've had over eleven years, and they are still in great shape and sound the same they did after they first broke in . . . I've used them in several different systems and they've been really good performers with no diminishment of sound or looks.

They were expensive, they should be that way!

I've had good luck with Decware interconnects and PS Audio interconnects as well. All are well made and hold up!

I bought a .5 meter Decware interconnect when I bought my Taboo and CSP2 and have no regrets. I had been using Kimber KCAG and Hero cables but have ordered more Decware.

I have also done the sleeving trick using black tec flex and heat shrink tubing over Mapleshade Golden Helix. The wires look very classy now and I notice no difference in the sound. I may sleeve my Kimber 8TC next it's a cheap way to enjoy the hobby.

On old cable I can tell you that copper romex house wiring has a "life" that is known and cannot be installed beyond a certain date that is in the code stamped on the sheathing. It does in my experience become brittle and this with just the passage of time say 30 months. Building inspectors can disallow the use of such "out of date" product. Why would any other metal product be different? aloha, mike

I'm afraid my experience so far with both the DSRII interconnects and the ZSTYX speaker cables have not been too impressive.

I've only received them today and they've been in the system for around 6 hours now and I'm afraid that I just can't listen to them.... On either of my 2 set-ups.

They are simply too harsh and bright with a glare in the midrange which I find intolerable and a bloom in the bass which muddles the soundstage.

This totally caught me by surprise as I was expecting great things based on my experience with the newly purchased NFX speakers and ZP3 Phonostage. When I switched back to my Hisago interconnects and Siltech speaker cables, I returned to a state of bliss again.

I hope that it's just a case of needing time to burn in but I seriously don't know how to go about doing this as the normal route of running them in is out of the question at the moment as I find them (in this current condition) just way too harsh and unlistenable..... In fact, the thought of re-introducing them back into the system fills me with dread...

I'm afraid me and the Decware cables aren't a match made in heaven.I'm going to see if I can find someone who can oven cook the cables and see if there are any improvements. But at the moment, I cannot say that I'm impressed.

Sorry to hear of your disappointment. These cables are significantly different sounding after a few hundred hours of use. I understand it can be hard to handle those hours of use. If you can set them up in a little system somewhere and just run them for a week quietly, they should sound totally different the next time you put them in.

All I can say is they'll totally reveal the sound of what drives them. The only equipment of yours I have any experience with is the SE84, so I don't know how those other components "sound."

I found the ICs to be not quite my cup of tea for a while. . .until I changed some source components and then it was revealed that what I most disliked of the ICs were. . . problems with the source.

Anyway, you gave them a shot, and I'd advise somehow burning them in and trying them again. They may surprise you then.

I may be taking them down to a shop that claims that they can run in the cables via some sort of heating element, ovenlike thingy.... They're not cheap @ 20 bucks a day and they reckon that it'll take at least 3 days. That's 60 bucks to run in the cables so I'm not too sure.

They claim it works but frankly I'm skeptical.... but I really don't know what else to do.... so short of just putting them in the cupboard at home, I may just try out this gizmo.

Will let you know if I decide to try it out. For now, they're definitely playing 2nd fiddle to my Siltechs and Hisago combo... All terminated with Furutech hardware.....

Hmm. . . not sure I would spend sixty dollars for that . . . given the price of the interconnects, it seems counter-intuitive. If you're not happy with them, and you have interconnects you are happy with, are you still within the return window? That would make sense.

If you do keep them, couldn't you run them in your bedroom system all the time that you aren't in the bedroom, quietly, just to get some hours on them? If you're worried about the tube amp, do you have something of a solid state receiver or such in a closet somewhere you could use? I know I do.

Anyway, I would have even bought the interconnects from you new, as I just ordered a half-meter and a full meter pair in the last week or so. Here's hoping you find a happy resolution in short order.

For me, I only listen to records... always have..... Never found a CD player that I even remotely liked..... The closest was a friend's Wadia (don't know what model) but the price put me off for what I thought to be a compromise option.

I totally understand. Vinyl sounds wonderful, and I could be totally nostalgic for the sound and the artifacts . . . but. . . . .

In the eighties I became even more obsessed with jazz than I was beforehand, and began serious collecting of jazz recordings, and recordings out of print for decades began to be available on cd and I began picking them up. There's no way I could have found even one quarter of my collection on lp here (very slim jazz pickings on lp or in live performance here) or even via ebay etc. I began trading for lps on cdr and cdrs of tapes never released officialy with others (especially some jazz musicians and a former manager of jazz musicians) etc. And spending all my money on cds; I had given up smoking and drinking, didn't have a car, and had money for recordigns. As a result I became a cd listener and collector and I've thousands of recordings. I have built my system around cd and it sounds great, especially since I bought the Sony SCD-XA5400 ES player, it is the best cd player I've heard, period, even better than the output of the ZDAC-1 for ME. So I'm invested in cd for the rest of my life, and it's not a handicap, I've learned to appreciate redbook sound done right.

For me, it's the music rather than the medium, there's so much more music to explore for me on cd than vinyl.

Anyway, that's the path I've chosen, I can certainly see that if I lived in a more jazz vinyl rich area, I'd be on the same course you follow.